While polio is already wiped out from almost all the countries around the world there are still some polio cases seen in Afghanistan, Ministry of Public Health said Sunday, adding that more serious anti-polio campaigns need to be carried out this year.
Polio vaccination process was supposed to come to conclusion by 2010, the ministry said. However it was eventually seen necessary to provide vaccination for over 8 million children in Afghanistan, besides which Chickenpox was seen considerably increased over the past few years.
"We are putting serious efforts to eliminate polio," said Suraya Dalil, Minister of Public Health, "The well-known chickenpox is also a lethal disease which kills children and causes malnutrition and defectiveness."
"This is one of the most important programmes which plays a very big role in decreasing mother and child mortality," she added.
According to ministry figures, 37 cases of polio were recorded from Helmand province last solar year (March 2011 – March 2012) while there were two cases seen in eastern Nangarhar province this year.
Insecurity is said to be the major reason why polio vaccination programmes are not well-implemented across the country.
Besides Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan are the only two countries with cases of polio.